The writer Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Are you a word wiz?

Which of the statements below do you think correctly explains the origin of the word "March"?

A. It comes from the name of a river in Norse mythology.

B. It comes from the name of an ancient Roman god.

C. It comes from the French word for "three."

D. It comes from the Greek word for "soldier."

One of the gods worshipped by the ancient Romans was a war god named Mars. In his honor the Romans named one of the months of the year "martius," which means "of Mars" or "belonging to Mars." The Latin "martius" later became "march" in early French, and it was from early French that the word came into English. The verb "to march" is not related to the name of the month. We can trace it to the French word "marchier," which means "to trample" and which probably has its origins in a Germanic language.